“What is even a pocket realm?” Li Lang curiously asked.
“What? You haven’t heard of them? They’re special spaces powerful cultivators create and often hold their valuables! They are also commonly created as a facility to train the younger generation of huge organizations, but the resources to do so are insane. It’s a great opportunity for us to enter one! If it’s restricted to Energy Gathering cultivators like it says, it must be a training realm. I heard you can often find treasures or powerful cultivation techniques in them if you pass the tests inside.” Long Yi rambled passionately.
“I see, so it’s like a trial with plentiful rewards?”
“Exactly!”
Seeing the passion from Long Yi, their tour guide couldn’t help but smile.
“This young man is correct. The Great Trial of Water Crest is a pocket realm that only opens once every ten years. You guys are in luck just for having the opportunity to secure a spot.”
“It says there that a tournament is being held in six months. Are there any other details about that?” Li Lang eagerly asked.
“Yes, this is our annual competition. It is free to enter with plentiful rewards. The only caveat is that there will be a large crowd of spectators, so sometimes people don’t participate for fear of exposing their techniques,” the guide replied.
It’s free and attracts a large crowd? I’m guessing the covenant organizes a gambling ring for it to profit or something…
“What about the format? Is it separated by age or cultivation realm?”
“The tournament is separated into the youth section and the adult section. Though in this case, the prize to enter the pocket realm is only for the youth division.”
“Youth tournament m-means all our o-opponents should be in the m-middle stages of Energy Gathering as well. We’ll w-want to at l-least reach the f-fifth stage of Energy Gathering to h-have a good chance to g-get into the top sixteen f-for the prize.” Wei Ping added.
Li Lang nodded grimly. He wasn’t sure if there was enough time to catch up as that banked on the result of his new experiment. It had only been a day so far, so it was hard to tell. He was hoping their spiritual roots would continue to strengthen the more they cultivated, allowing them to speed up their cultivation in time.
Based on their experience within Spirit Grove, most people under the age of fifteen were around the fifth or sixth stage of Energy Gathering. Only those who were especially talented broke past to the late stages of Energy Gathering at such a young age.
However, they weren’t sure what the standard was for demonic cultivators. Still, Li Lang thought it shouldn’t be far off, as they had their own bottlenecks and issues as well.
“It shouldn’t be too bad,” Long Yi said. “Fights at our level are not just about cultivation, but the techniques and tactics used as well. You’re right in having to make ample preparation, though…Can we go back to the repository room in the bazaar? I want to look for some Qi arts techniques.”
“I d-do too,” Wei Ping concurred.
As someone with grade three aptitude, Long Yi had been able to break through the bottleneck between the third stage and the fourth stage of Energy Gathering with relative ease. Coupled with the Cleansing Drug, he was confident in reaching the fifth stage within half a year.
However, Wei Ping was in another situation. Even with all the advantages afforded to him, it was hard to determine when one would break past these major bottlenecks.
Once he did enter the middle stages of Energy Gathering, he would be able to learn Qi arts to produce much more complicated ranged attacks. It was something Li Lang had previously held off on after agreeing with Elder Cao’s advice to hone the few skills he had first.
With the new tournament on the horizon, he was also beginning to reconsider.
“Maybe another day.” Li Lang replied as he directed a look at Wei Ping. “You haven’t broken through yet, so it’ll just be a distraction right now.”
With that, the trio retired to the inn as the day approached its end.
Filled with motivation that was backed by a tangible goal in mind, the three of them redoubled their efforts and settled on a routine.
Li Lang continued to refine pills during the day and practiced cultivation techniques during all the other times. Long Yi was comfortably progressing a step at a time while Wei Ping’s progress visibly stalled.
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After a week, their initial momentum began to die down and even Li Lang began to have his doubts as he felt like he was falling behind. Refining pills was their main source of income, but it also meant he had less time to train.
Combined with the fact that training in the same things over and over again made them doubt their progress.
It was Wei Ping who managed to speak out against the situation first.
“We n-need to do s-something different. I doubt w-we can win the tournament b-by just training nonstop l-like this. We s-should head into t-the underground e-expanse to train against t-the Qi beasts there.”
Both Long Yi and Li Lang were taken aback by his words not because they were shocking, but because their calmest member was the one to suggest the drastic change to their routine.
“I know you’ve been struggling with your bottleneck, but are you really sure that is a wise choice?” Long Yi hesitantly asked. “That’s going out into the wild with all the demonic cultivators lurking around.”
“It s-should be fine as long a-as we don’t s-stray too deep. I’ve h-heard the Bloodwave Conclave u-upholds order around the a-area well.”
“I think…Wei Ping is right.” Li Lang added. “Our spiritual root has shown signs of continuous improvement, so our main concern is combat experience. Real combat is the best way to hone techniques. We just need to prepare adequately for emergencies before heading out.”
Throughout the week, the boys continued to use the Cleansing Drug to cultivate and were examined by the auto-analyzer on a daily basis. Their spiritual roots continued to strengthen, meaning they filtered out more toxins for the same amount of Qi they used to absorb. This allowed them to make more and more progress every day.
“L-let us fully p-prepare, then.” Wei Ping declared.
Having decided on a new course of action, the trio wasted no time and began preparing for their adventure.
They ventured onto the busy commercial streets of Emberglow City and first visited a talisman shop.
“The warding talisman had served me well, but we should look into a more powerful talisman if we can. We’ll need something that will work against humans.” Li Lang explained as they entered the shop.
The warding talisman he had been making use of ever since the beginning only worked against mindless Qi beasts. As for human cultivators, even if he had a talisman that worked against them, it would be hard to say if they would be so easily fooled.
Foundation Establishment cultivators had truly stepped onto the path of cultivation and were no longer considered mortals. They could not only fly for a short duration, but their Qi senses were exponentially more powerful than Energy Gatherers. It was exactly because it proved so difficult to fool them that the three boys couldn’t find any talismans for sale that would work against these experts.
“Maybe we should get an offensive or defensive talisman instead?” Long Yi muttered.
“I don’t think it’ll do much against a real Foundation Establishment cultivator who means us harm. Not unless we get a bunch of late-stage ones that are out of our budget,” Li Lang off-handedly replied as he continued browsing the dozens of talismans behind the counter.
“T-there’s a c-concealment talisman here.” Wei Ping excitedly declared.
The trio instantly honed in on the talisman in question and read its price and description. Their excitement quickly died down the more they read. Li Lang sighed after having completed reading the description.
“Only three minutes. I don’t think we’d have enough time to retreat to safety with so little time.”
“What if we c-combined it with this one here?” Wei Ping immediately pointed to another talisman that was two counters over, as if he memorized the placement of the store.
“That…could work.” Li Lang frowned before directing his attention to a nearby clerk. “Excuse me, can I ask what the effective range of the concealment talisman is? Would it be able to hide an entire Skyrunner?”
The attendant tilted their head and thought for a few seconds before replying.
“Hmm, you’ll likely need to use two concurrently to cover a large enough area for most Skyrunners.”
Two…That’s a whole fifty Qi stones combined. We may have to capture a Qi beast or two to recover from the cost if we go through with it…
After fifteen minutes of discussion with his companions, Li Lang finally decided to buy the talismans in question, as they decided their safety was of the utmost priority. Even if they didn’t end up using them, they could still resell the talismans.
They finished up their purchase before heading to the adjacent store. The next thing they would need was weapons. Now that Li Lang and Long Yi were in the fourth stage of Energy Gathering, they could envelop weapons with their Qi.
Before that, most mundane weapons wouldn’t be worth using as they would easily break and be unable to express the power of their cultivation well. Unless they had access to at least a mortal-grade weapon artifact, it wasn’t worth wielding a weapon.
However, weapon artifacts were not something easily attainable. Artificers could only produce a limited amount of them every so often if they had the right materials. Often, only rich cultivators or those near the peak stage of Energy Gathering and above would have a mortal-grade artifact.
That was why they were way out of Li Lang and his group’s grasp. They would have to settle for a mundane weapon until they gained enough wealth or one of them learned the art of artifact crafting themselves.
The next morning, after having completed their shopping, the trio set off out of the city for the first time since they had arrived. Instead of heading toward the surface, they arrived at the edge of the city, where there was a tunnel leading downward.
The three boys stared curiously down the cold granite passage. Despite being underground, the entire path was adequately lit up by the glowing fungus on the walls.
“You guys got everything, right? Even if we only plan to go for half a day, you should still carry at least a few days’ worth of rations.” Li Lang repeated the camping advice he had once heard to his peers.
Seeing his two friends nod, the group departed from Emberglow City for the first time since their arrival.